Just Kharkov ...

 ... among many other cities. 

This is NATO's concept of combined arms. I am sure this will not get into the "textbooks" in US and Europe's military academies. Why bother with reality of it all and a dismal incompetence, when there is always Hollywood (or Elstree) and human herpes of West's propaganda. 

To Those Who Still ...

 ... do not recognize calamity for NATO in 404. Here is a map of the situation in Kharkov Oblast, but also at the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk strong area.

It doesn't take a military genius to understand what is going on strategically and that you have several cauldrons (or blisters if you wish) formed all along the frontline. And one must ask question, what's the deal with Kharkov Oblast? This is not the territory which joined Russia? I guess we have to ask a larger question, because these events are the part of Russia preparing for war (in whatever form) with Europe. 

Here is a hint from Lavrov from yesterday: 

"At some point in our history, after the creation of UN, OSCE and after the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the prospects for coexistence and even cooperation with the West seemed very realistic to us. All this has gone into oblivion. An open war has been declared on us. For this, the Kiev regime is being used as a "tip" ... The Kiev regime and the Ukrainian state are openly being used as a geopolitical battering ram." 

Read attentively highlighted. No "coexistence" means only one thing--it is "us" against "them". Only one will survive, and all indicators are telling us that it is not going to be Europe. 

Western 404 ...

... begins to feel the pain. That's just the start. This is Lvov today--the hotbed of 404 Nazis. 

It is not just power generation which is being wiped out, including 750 kV substations whose destruction forced nuclear power plants of 404 to reduce power output. Moreover, 404 is now being cut off EU grid. But even MORE over--every industrial plant is being destroyed.  

Meanwhile the "Russian" city of Kharkov. 

The only question I have to our German friends here is that it seems these morons are doing their Nazi salutes under the ... GDR's Army march. I could be wrong, of course. If you can, please confirm or otherwise. But in the end, it doesn't matter--even if they have been doing this to the Swan Lake music it wouldn't make any difference. Nazis are Nazis. 

Kharkov Continues ...

 ... to receive presents. So far, 21 today. 

The industrial plant Uyzh Cable has been thoroughly decommunized, including a separate power station for its own needs. So, not reported in Western media (at least I couldn't find it), is this:

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky changed tack following multiple explosions across Ukraine and called for a ceasefire on aerial attacks. "A unilateral ceasefire in the sky is quite possible," he wrote on his Telegram channel, without explaining what that could mean. However, Strana news website described the statement as a radical shift in his policy course. Zelensky may have changed his position amid significant challenges Ukraine is facing with regard to its air defense capabilities. Politicians, experts and reporters have been actively discussing the hole in Ukraine’s aerial defense shield, the news outlet said. According to Strana, this may have major negative consequences for Ukraine ahead of the cold weather.

It is not a "shift" in anything, for the retards in media, it is begging for mercy which is not coming. A thorough destruction of 404's remnants of industry and power generation has commenced and it is not easing. 

A lot has to be said about West's propaganda, but while all kinds of fanboys masturbate to military fairy tales not higher than company (at best--battalion) level, the operational part for NATO is dire. So is a strategic one. 

Kharkov Is Saying Last Goodbye ...

 ... to electricity. Right now. 

A group of friendly Iskanders visited a number of power generating and distribution facilities and decommunized them, because after all, those damn communists wanted Kharkov to become, which it did, a monstrous industrial center. But since those nasty commies originated in Russia and 404 wants Russia and all her influences dead, Russians obliged. 

There are consequences to everything we do as individuals and as societies.  But not in Trump's universe, because we know, should he have been POTUS then, the US would have won Vietnam War. 

Yes, yes--it was political correctness which prevented the US from winning wars. That is why Nixon, on the advice of Kissinger, killed golden standard, because the US could not finance its Vietnam adventure. You see, all because of political correctness. Yes, it is so easy to win the war. Indeed, the US singlehandedly defeated Nazis. 

US Media ...

... at their best. You see, now it becomes obvious that Kharkov has nothing to do with Russia (or 404) it is an ancient Arab city. 

The Scale Of Coping.

For those people who do not get my message on this issue I will reiterate--even today there are some remnants of the US and Republic which I love dearly, together with people who share those values, even in the midst of a catastrophe we all observe and live through, with the US circling the drain with a very few prospects of stopping this motion before being removed as a threat from the global arena. But having said all that, it has to be also said that the US was always "provincial" in its foreign policy and, especially so, in its military posture which was based primarily on outdated concepts and, frankly, serious operational rigidity--a euphemism for illiteracy, a product of America's confabulated history of WW II and steady intellectual and academic decline, now accelerating tremendously, of American military-political elites.   

Behold the piece from The Hill which demonstrates this process in full. It is an "opinion" piece, of course, but it is very indicative of military illiteracy of even those who are supposed to have a clue. They don't. Here are the authors: Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. 

Biden is losing World War III 

Well, we know that, but it is what these guys base their conclusion upon, and, boy, do they go full Monty parading their incompetence. 

In 1860, Buchanan, fearing escalation, refused to sufficiently reinforce the strategic fort guarding the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Although such a move likely would not have changed the trajectory of the war, it would have drawn a much-needed red line for the Southern secessionists. Instead, Buchanan did the bare minimum, just as the Biden administration is now doing in Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and in the Middle East. Defending U.S. allies is not enough, just as minimally defending Fort Sumter proved futile.

The fact that US cadre military officers goes for such analogy tells you immediately that he has no clue what he is talking about, because US military history in general is barely applicable to continental warfare as any historic analogy, let alone lesson, with Civil War being interesting merely as a first truly industrial war. That's about it. Dragging here some example from 1860 and, under the guise of solid "scholarship", trying to project it onto the military realities of the XXI century is a fool's errand. In fact, it is for amateurs. It is also cringe-worthy in purely strategic sense, which, as even authors admit wouldn't make much difference in the end. Thus the question--why use it as an example? But confusion abounds...

“Defending” must no longer be the watchword of the day in Biden’s White House, but “winning.” Winning this increasingly kinetic global ideological war is our only way forward if liberal democracy is to prevail against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s shared vision of a so-called multipolar world, militarily and economically dominated by Russia and China and anchored by BRICS. Biden’s escalation fears must also end. As evidenced by Oct 7., Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Iran’s April 13 attacks on Israel and now the Bastogne-like battle for the Kharkiv Oblast, fears of escalation have only led to vacuums being filled by our nation’s enemies — and the enemies of our allies in Eastern Europe and the Mideast.

Bastogne? Is this the extent of these writers' historic literacy? The US Army is not even in the same league with combined arms operations and investing all kinds of cities and towns by Russian Armed Forces be that in WW II, with gargantuan scale of operations on the Eastern Front, which make Western Front, bar Normandy Landing and Battle of the Bulge look rather timid in comparison, or be that later in the XXI century. So, authors suddenly discover that Russian Army can take cities. They also are very badly informed on the issue of Kharkov so called "offensive" in 2022 because it had nothing in common, in fact, it was antithetical to the Battle of the Bulge, because there was NO objective of taking Kharkov in 2022 and it was at best probing, in reality recon in force by Russian Army, which never lost operational initiative, unlike it was with under equipped and lacking gas Wehrmacht which was already defeated in the East and by the end of Battle of the Bulge started transferring divisions to the Eastern Front. And, I guess, authors drank too much of 404 Kool Aid and lack basic understanding of modern warfare and how political objectives shape military ones. Not surprising, the US Army never fought anything like this in the last 80 years. 

Obviously both authors have zero understanding of how resources are mustered and how required force is composed based on operational and strategic requirements. Not surprising. And both, evidently, cannot come to grips that the United States and its NATO chihuahuas simply have neither economic nor force wherewithal to talk about any kind of "winning" against Russia. Different leagues militarily. Moreover, referring to US National Security Strategy documents of the last 30 years is also a fool's errand--America doesn't DO strategy, because it cannot DO it due to people who write those documents having zero skills apart from nauseating propagandizing of what is not there--America's ability to fight real war without being annihilated--in developing strategy which is not a wet dream based on the delusion of grandeur. Now, these two are coping really hard not understanding that they should have studied better and avoided using their "experiences" as a yardstick--they are irrelevant to modern war. 

I know, it hurts to be a loser, but that's life in which you win some, you lose some, but for "intel" people in the US to even grasp what they observe, they should concentrate not on spreading military amateurish BS in media but concentrate on educating themselves on REAL war and military history, not hunting down Afghan weddings or studying IDF "experiences" in genocide. Of course they are not going to heed my humble advice but US strategic incompetence is shocking. I knew it was bad, SMO exposed it as absent altogether. These two illustrated my point really well. But then again--I just finished thesis on that.

Larry Gives A Superb Treatment To...

... Kharkov situation two weeks ago and states:

Remember three weeks ago when Putin and the Russian military were on the ropes and the Ukrainian army was steamrolling through Kharkov? That was then and Urkaine’s promised victory failed to materialize. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that Russia abandoned the strategically meaningless territory in the Kharkov Oblast of Ukraine and re-deployed forces to the Donbas, Zaporhyzhia and Kherson. Why? To be in position for the referendum–i.e., to defend the Ukraine oblasts that would be given the chance to vote whether or not to reunite with mother Russia. Putin’s subsequent announcement of the referenda, which began last Friday, was not a Hail Mary pass nor an act of desperation. The planning for this had been in the works for at least a month, maybe longer.

While Ukraine continued to throw its troops against the Russian lines and launched artillery strikes on civilian targets, it paid a terrible price in terms of human casualties and destroyed tanks and combat vehicles, and failed completely to disrupt the vote. There have been international observers monitoring the vote throughout the four oblasts. I wish at least one reporter would ask these observers when they were first contacted and asked to come to the Russian controlled territory and do the monitoring. That detail would provide some insight into the extent of the pre-planning for the referenda.

Exactly, now having a luxury of a hindsight we can definitely state that, indeed, the whole Kharkov "offensive", which have been drowned in blood of VSU, was a regrouping with the aim to reinforce the south to allow referenda to take place. Larry makes a superb observation and correctly concludes:

The collapsing economies in France, Germany and Italy also will compel those countries to spend more time trying to quiet growing domestic unrest. When you factor in the energy crisis and Ukrainian military setbacks as winter sets in, the foundation of NATO unity vis-a-vis Ukraine, is likely to crack.

This is a first rate analytical work. Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. 

Clarity In Small Dozes. Or Why I Do Not "Do" Sitreps.

1. I already quoted Apti Alaudinov when two days ago he stated: 

What is happening today was planned. This is a tactical ploy that helped us to pull all their forces and means to the territory where it is convenient for us to fight with them.

But, of course, what does he know, right? He is just a commander of Akhmat regiment which is more of a brigade size formation which fights in 404. Some say they have 1,200 people in SMO (which IS a regiment size force), others say--more than that. So, experienced and courageous commander of this formation calls it as it is. But no, we get all kinds of arm-chair "strategists" who know it better. Well...

2. Today, though, much maligned by me, and not me only, Mr. Sivkov, who is now a spokesperson for Academy of Artillery and Rocket Science, recalls that he, after all, was an officer of the General Staff and states:

«Наши военные знали, что готовится наступление, поэтому сейчас войска перегруппировываются для уничтожения группировки Вооруженных сил Украины (ВСУ), которая пришла в районы Балаклеи и Изюма. Надо иметь в виду, что там нет укрепрайонов, поэтому задача уничтожения наиболее боеспособных украинских частей будет решаться достаточно успешно. На это потребуется еще несколько дней», – считает доктор военных наук Константин Сивков. Эксперт особо отметил, что за последние трое суток, как стало известно из сводки Минобороны, было уничтожено более 2 тыс. украинских и иностранных боевиков, а также свыше ста единиц бронетехники и артиллерии. «ВСУ несут большие суточные потери. Сейчас главная задача – разгромить наступающую группировку ВСУ, лишить ее потенциала, выбить технику, которая находится не в городах и укрепрайонах, а на открытых пространствах. У ВСУ не должно остаться сил и средств для ведения эффективной обороны», – пояснил собеседник. 

Translation: “Our military knew that an offensive was being prepared, so now the troops are regrouping to destroy the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which has come to the Balakleya and Izyum regions. It must be borne in mind that there are no fortified areas there, so the task of destroying the most combat-ready Ukrainian units will be solved quite successfully. This will take a few more days,” said Doctor of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov. The expert emphasized that over the past three days, as it became known from the report of the Ministry of Defense, more than 2 thousand Ukrainian and foreign fighters, as well as over a hundred units of armored vehicles and artillery, were destroyed. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering large daily losses. Now the main task is to defeat the advancing grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, deprive it of its potential, knock out equipment that is not located in cities and fortified areas, but in open spaces. The Armed Forces of Ukraine should not have the strength and means to conduct effective defense,” the interlocutor explained.

But, but... how could this be, when Russian General Staff didn't call Yuri Podolyaka or Rybar, or Readovka, or South Front and didn't ask for their "expert" opinion? Because as we know, the real war is fought in media sphere and people who wouldn't be able to distinguish shit from shinola operationally rely on their own and IPSO echo-chamber. 

Here is one such demonstration--operational maps. I did a review of this issue a few days and touched upon this seemingly simple thing: that you cannot trust maps by all kinds of fanboys, like Rybar, because those are NOT real military maps and the first tell-tell sign of it the lack of proper legend and scale. Here is one such example of such a map:

As you can see yourself, in a good tradition of fanboys the attack on Balakleya is presented with a nice yellow arrow. But let me show you how, let's say, the staff of a brigade or a division size formation looks at the battle. Here is 1942 and its operational map by Wehrmacht. It is Voronezh. 

By now you begin to notice the difference, right? Right, this one is for professionals and it is also the one which once first symbols of units and formations, both friendly and enemy's, begin to be drawn upon, and you guessed it, it becomes classified. 

Here is 6th Cavalry Corps map in 1941 around... Kharkov. 

As you can see yourself, you get here all necessary geographic and tactical details on it. This was 80+ years ago. Fast forward to 2022 and SMO, not only Russian Army uses paper maps but most of it in the minute tactical detail is reflected on the displays of Combat Management Systems of battalion and higher level, up to to VNTSUO in Moscow. Needless to say, ALL of it, without exception, including REAL positions of Russian units and formations is highly classified and is not known to ALL "experts", me included, who pretend that they know. They don't. Same as they don't know real operational plans, they do not know the real troops movements and all poor and overwhelmed consumers of such "expertise" get is a feculant stream of "interpretations" of media information by amateurs who present their operational "skills" (99% of them have no idea what operational planning is) by producing the SO CALLED "operational maps" which are nothing more than a complete and misleading BS concocted based on the media "reports" most of which are nothing more than crude propaganda and PR. 

I am not going to disassemble here all those idiotic assumptions by all these "experts", many of who are nothing more than unsuspecting conduits for Ukie propaganda, but I have to give them the credit for their compete belief in their own operational and strategic talent and foresight after most of them never served a day in uniform and never commanded at least a platoon, let alone company or battalion size formations, not to speak of serving in the staffs of battalion, regiment, brigade not to speak of corps or the army. But here we are. 

Reality, however, from the data which is pouring in for the last couple of days from Kharkov is such that already more than 2,000 of VSU personnel are KIAs, so you can now multiply it by at least three and it will give you around 6,000 sanitary losses--in general, the rate of losses is even steeper than that in Kherson a week ago, when VSU has written off between 15 to 20,000 of personnel. Kharkov is shaping to be a wowser. A bloody one. But then again, what do those losers in General Staff know when we have internet "analysts" with zero military experience telling us that rate of losses doesn't matter and it absolutely doesn't indicate like... nothing. Certainly not what Russian professional military people say for the last 72 hours--that a massacre of VSU at Kherson finally pressed them to roll out their main forces at Kharkov onto the plains and small forests of the countryside where already today a number of them have been "enclosed" in what is called "fire sacks" and are being annihilated. 

I can sit here and write about this shit for hours, but, frankly, I already confirmed to myself a number of assertions I made in the last few months and I am happy with that, since it makes my job easier. I just want to reiterate--I am not in the PR business and sometimes get a bit tired debunking obvious BS, because it takes time to provide proper framework and context for people to stop panicking, when looking at "operational maps" from Toys"R"Us and listening to incessant propaganda in media. But what do I know, really? This is your primer for the weekend. 

Denis Pushilin And Kharkov. Larry On NATO Support.

I don't have the link yet, but yesterday Denis Pushilin, the Head of Donetsk PR has been heard as saying that Kharkov and all of Kharkov Oblast need to be liberated. Pushilin is a very noticeable figure as, for now at least, the Head of independent and recognized by Russia DPR, but also, de facto a fully integrated Russia's political figure now. Very important at that and fully coordinated with Kremlin. So, when figure of such prominence speaks aloud on such matters then we should pay attention. This matters in so far as our assumptions on territorial goals of SMO are concerned. 

Now, three EU stooges talking about the "end of conflict" in 404 are yet another indicator of a desperation setting in and feeble attempts to save face in a face of inevitable result. 

The German chancellor condemned what he called the “unimaginable cruelty” of the conflict in Ukraine, during a visit to the Kiev suburb of Irpin on Thursday. Olaf Scholz was joined in Kiev by French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. “The brutal destruction of this city is a memorial: this war must end,” Scholz wrote on Twitter. Irpin saw intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the first weeks of the conflict, following Russia’s attack in late February. Moscow withdrew its troops from the Kiev region and some other Ukrainian territories in early April, calling it a goodwill gesture aimed at aiding peace talks. The negotiations have since stalled.

Scholz is an idiot not just as a politician but in purely human terms, which is expected from average European "lefty", but even he can see the writing on the wall. Larry Johnson gave a good write up on the matter yesterday.

It appears that Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk is being performed by French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. First up, Macron. You do not have to speak French to understand that his previous position of standing firm against Russia has changed and he believes Ukraine should cut a deal with Russia to save itself. 

What also has to be noted, however, is the fact that we may be past the "make a deal" point and Pushilin's words give some credence to all that. We'll know soon enough. For those, however, who "rely" on all those Yuri Podolyaka types and other fanboys "analysts" who call, nay, demand "mobilization", here is Peskov verbatim today:

МОСКВА, 16 июня. /ТАСС/. Пресс-секретарь президента России Дмитрий Песков назвал лживыми информационными вбросами публикации в западных СМИ о том, что власти РФ якобы могут объявить о дополнительном призыве в войска. "Нет", - ответил он в четверг ТАСС на вопрос, планирует ли президент России Владимир Путин в своем выступлении на ПМЭФ 17 июня объявлять о мобилизации. Комментируя соответствующие западные публикации о том, что власти РФ якобы могут объявить о дополнительном призыве в войска, Песков сказал: "Это лживые информационные вбросы".

Translation: MOSCOW, 16 June. /TASS/. The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov called the publications in the Western media that the Russian authorities could allegedly announce an additional conscription to the troops as false informational stuffing. "No," he answered TASS on Thursday when asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to announce mobilization in his speech at SPIEF on June 17. Commenting on the relevant Western publications that the Russian authorities could allegedly announce an additional conscription to the troops, Peskov said: "These are false information stuffing."

I guess, I rest my case.

P.S. Announcement: I am scheduled tomorrow to do, now traditional, hour and a half (about that) with PolitWera and Colonel (officer-operator of the Central Apparatus of Russian MoD) Vladimir Trukhan. It should go live at VK at 10:00 AM Pacific Day Time and later Wera will upload it to Rutube. 

The link should appear later.

On A Hellhole Otherwise Known As Ukraine.

I didn't really want to touch this topic but since it is a sad, 5th year, anniversary of the war coming to Donbass and Banderites openly, with "style", destroying the monument to Marshal Georgi Zhukov in what at some point of time was called the most Russian city in Ukraine, Kharkov, I think it is worth revisiting this Ukrainian topic. 

We need this revisiting to shut down, finally, all those uber-patriotic voices which continue, albeit at much lower level, to whine about Russia not invading Ukraine in 2014 and trying to point out some hypothetical "benefits" of such an invasion. Those voices are wrong not only strategically or operationally, they are wrong (and ignorant) on a fundamental, cultural, level. 

We should start from dispelling any illusions on the account of the so called Novorossiya and, grossly inaccurate, picture of Eastern Ukraine as being taken hostage by Western Ukraine Banderistas--this picture is only partially correct, to put it mildly, and does not reflect reality on the ground in the Eastern Ukraine.  But first, let me give you some (very limited) pictures from my military life from 1988 through 1990 which resulted in a complete implosion of the USSR and war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. I will abstain here from commenting rights and wrongs--but that was our life then and I know how half-a-million people look like running at you. Also how to live and serve in the city under siege with a lot of bullets flying around.

The reason I go "there"--a very painful memories--is simple: for whatever reason, when people are unified with a single idea, however bad or good it is, they move in hundreds thousands, if not millions and the place becomes hell. Here are some photos from Baku where Baku garrison, including cadets from my Alma Mater, and, of course, formations of MVD and DoD, were dealing with then, starting from 1988. 

Disarming. Some of our people died. 

Naval cadets at block-post.

Our guys (naval cadets--I was an officer then), actually, had one block-post literally next to our high-rise--very eventful nights, to put it mildly. Apart from huge numbers of demonstrating people, as you may have already guessed, the next step is always--going for the guns and other weapons--that is what people in turmoil do. Mind you also, events in Caucasus which shook and dismantled USSR were happening in a still fairly well structured security-wise Soviet Union.  And here is a tactical question: in the immediate aftermath of Crimea getting back home in 2014, the number of people protesting at Kharkov's main square (Kharkov is about the same size as Baku 1.5+ million people) never reached anything higher than 50,000 people at the most active days (compare this to Maidan in Kiev--order of magnitude more people), not to mention the fact that apart from taking the main building of regional administration, very little was done to ensure that "uprising" will be successful. There is a dramatic contrast here between, almost equal to Kharkov's size, Donetsk and much smaller Lugansk, who, while having massive demonstrations, went for the jugular: weapons, control of key administrative, financial, transport, military installations. They also formed militias immediately. This was not the case with allegedly "Russian" city of Kharkov. Why? 

The answer is very simple: same as with Odessa which took its rape on May 2, 2014 never getting off its knees--Ukrainians DID happen as a political nation. As Rostislav Ishenko astutely observes--these are Russian speaking Ukrainians for who Ukraine is a self-contained prime value in their lives (in Russian) and they, in 2014, didn't want to go to Russia, period. Those are majority in what today is known as Novorossiya and these are not the people Russia needs to spend blood and treasure "liberating". In fact, any invasion by Russia for the sake of liberating allegedly "suffering" from svidomyte and Neo-Nazi dictatorship people there would have been a catastrophic mistake, since those people didn't want to be "liberated" and were completely content with Ukraine as their unique nation-state. In fact, should have Russian Army annihilated VSU (Ukrainian Armed Forces) in 2014, which would have resulted in catastrophic losses for VSU, that would have been precisely these rather dormant Ukrainians who would immediately radicalize to a Western Ukraine Banderist Neo-Nazi level. Not to interfere was a smart and wise decision by Kremlin, despite hysterical appeals by arm-chair "strategists" and other uber-patriots. 

Today, at the dark fifth anniversary of the war in Donbass, we can observe clearly both correctness of the decision not to interfere, unlike it was in Donbass, where primarily Russian people rose up, in Ukraine and to let EU and US deal with the economic and moral hellhole Ukraine has become today. We may wax political or philosophical whatever we want, but to illustrate what this all means I can give an example, that in my brigade, the chief of counter-intelligence department (Special Department-Osobyi Otdel), Captain 2nd Rank, himself an Azeri was not serving USSR since 1988 so much as providing crucial information to Azeri nationalists. Just one example of many, same things were happening in Armenia and all over Caucasus--very many people were changing loyalties. Dzhokhar Dudaev rings the bell? And here is the catch, these are not anymore Ukrainians who rejected Russia and Russians, most of who from Ukraine either live in Donbass or already moved to Russia, but these are Russians today, unlike it was the case in 2014, who do not want anything in common with Ukrainians. Yes, Putin may continue with his politically necessary gospel of Russians and Ukrainians being brotherly peoples--this is simply not true.  An overwhelming empirical evidence testifies to this.

Now that the Ukrainian economy is pretty much done and Ukraine has finally turned into a complete economic, cultural and intellectual shithole, many Ukrainians, those very same Ukrainians who in 2014 didn't want to be liberated, begin to grasp this simple reality and it hurts, badly. I wrote about it in 2017, today it is crystal clear--the fate of Ukraine is eventual disintegration, possibly due to a civil war (or wars) and, inevitably, Eastern Ukraine trying to whore itself out to anyone (not that it is not being done as I type this), while Western Ukraine will inevitably be divided between Poland, Hungary and Romania--let them deal with Banderistas--Eastern Ukraine will remain, well, irrelevant for Russia. I don't recall who drew this excellent parallel recently but Ukraine today is like that proverbial dead cat whose corpse neighbors throw over the fence at each-other's property to avoid dealing with rotting dead feline. This is exactly what is happening now between EU, USA and Russia. Russia is NOT going to put a single ruble into Ukraine (or whatever will be left of it) and once Nord Stream-2 and other pipe-lines are completed, Ukraine can go to hell and enjoy her status as parents of Sumerian civilization and diggers of the Black Sea. She eventually will be completely de-industrialized and will, finally, reach her desired status of a complete independence from Russia. Although, I have to correct myself--for the first time on my memory--I can say that Russia finally gained her independence from Ukraine and for that one has to thank profoundly and sincerely Vladimir Putin and those people from his circle who made the only correct decision in 2014--not to move a single battalion on Kharkov. After all, unlike in Caucasus in 1980s and 1990s, the numbers were simply not there and Kharkov deserves to lose monuments to Zhukov and its other famous people most of who considered themselves either Soviets or Russians.